Soundtracks and Sweat (2009)

 

AKA: What it was like to try and work remotely reviewing records for UK mags, whilst living in the Caribbean.

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Here in front: My Heart Rate Rapid by Metronomy. Doctor Who noises and vocals from Carmina Burana, also known by Google and now by me as the Old Spice music. Behind: the whirr of the fan.

A taxi beeps. You don’t hear many of them, not in this part of town; everyone’s got two, three SUVs against the H-day of H-2Ohshit puddles and driving storm. And there, in the distance, behind Metronomy’s stereo call, grumbles the very soul of the sky. Something is waking up through the heat haze.

This ten minutes it’s descended; perspiration from above and now inside, a sauna sans smoke, sticky, humid, heavy. The skies have swarmed and lower themselves. There’s nothing here as gauche as a cloud; I’m within the rain now, within the mugginess and deliciousness. The sweatlines drip down my face, teary with the heat; the trees shimmer and tremble as they await what may bring them life, but what has often brought destruction. The rumble comes closer, louder, a lion roaring over its territory: it spits and the sky breaks, finally. Huge drops hammer down and the sand-strewn roads are puddle and mudful.

The advance of the beast has begun.

All else seems silent: the birds have stopped singing, the cars have stopped fizzing by, the chirping insects disappeared somewhere safer. They won’t take this one on. They’re burying themselves in anticipation.

The lion passes by. It shakes its mane and a craggled coconut nearly – but not quite – thuds down. The tension remains. Metronomy sing Holiday, Kraftwerk gone Devo, disco bent sinister. The sky still sweats; the electricity is not yet visible.

Maybe not today, says the driving densensess. A minute passes. In the midst of this brine another tune insinuates: tinkling, trite, out of kilter. Hilariously out of place, the ice-cream van’s tune shatters the moment. After a beat three kids shout and jostle for position. The world snaps back into place.

The lion goes back to sleep.

For today.